Watson's weekly Jeffersonian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1907, June 27, 1907, Page PAGE TWELVE, Image 12

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PAGE TWELVE ISN’T THIS WHAT MR. WATSON WAS HOOTED FOR SAYING MANY YEARS AGO? (Continued from page 9.) years, it was once out of power for twenty four years consecutively, to win in the end one of the most brilliant victories in its career. No political organization in the history of repub lican institutions has *hown a more amazing vitality. Yet when The World, accused of not being THE BROWNSVILLE INVESTIGA TION. The Senate committee’s investiga tion into the Brownsville incident has contributed very little to public knowledge of the riot in the town. No new evidence of any particular importance supporting one conclu sion or another was brought out. The evidence as a whole points convinc ingly to the conclusion that the ne. gro soldiers raided the town, but it has not disclosed the individual per petrators. This was what the earlier army investigation of the outrage de veloped. The effort to show that the people of Brownsville fired the shots in the town in order to discredit the negroes and induce the War Depart ment to send them to another station failed completely. The suggestion was preposterous on the face of it, and not a scintilla of evidence was adduced in support of it. The motive for an attack by the negro soldiers on the town was made perfectly clear. They had been dis criminated against by the white townspeople and tradesmen. Their patronage was repulsed at certain sa loons, and at one of them, Tillman’s, a “Jim Crow” bar had been set up for the soldiers. There had been street brawls arising from race prej udice. A negro soldier had been knocked down by a white man named Tate for jostling a white woman in the street. These were the motives, and the raiders apparantly, amid a lot of indiscriminate shooting, bore the soldiers’ grievances in mind. Till man’s saloon was riddled with bul lets and its bartender shot dead at the door. The house next to the one in which Tate lived was fired into, a few of the raiders making a detour from the sectio nchiefly raided to fire upon this house apparently under the impression that it was Tate’s residence. Strong direct evidence was brought out to the effect that the raiders were negro soldiers. The party was seen PIANOS FROM $l9O UPWARD SOUTHERN AGENTS OF .. ‘ Steinway, Knabe, Weber, Everett, Fischer, Hardman and other Pianos. Payments by the month or week arranged. VICTOR TALKING MACHINES- EDISON PHONOGRAPHS Prices SIO.OO upward, on payments by month or week. PHILLIPS & CREW CO., 37-39 Peachtree St., Atlanta WRITE FOR CATALOGUES. MENTION'THIS PAPER. Democratic itself, asks “What is a Democrat?” there is no answer. Even the acknowledged leadei of the party, who has twice been its can didate for President, is unable to frame a def inition which distinguishes a Democrat from a Republican. If The Word’s question is unanswerable, then we must conclude that the old barriers between the parties have been broken down, that the parties have merged in all ex cept name and organization, and that them; that the issue now is not of meas- close at hand by a considerable num ber of Brownsville residents. All agree that they wore the khaki uni form. Some witnesses who heard the voices of the raiders near by testified that they were the voices of negroes, and other witnesses who were clos<> enough to distinguish the color of the raiders swore that they were negroes. Some witnesses saw shots fired from the barracks toward the town, and also saw the negroes jump from the wall surrounding the fort and run into the town, shooting as they went. The raid took place at only as hoit distance, about four city blocks, from the fort, and it would have been per fectly possible for the raiders to re turn to the fort and form in line with their companies who were call ed to arms. The lights in the fort were extinguished, and in the confus ion it was possible for the raiders to return unobserved. The white offi cers were under the impression that the people of Brownsville were mak ing a demonstration against the ne gro soldiers and were firing upon the fort. So no watch was kept to de tect straggling raiders returning to the fort, and no inspection of the soldiers’ rifles was made until the following morning to see if any had been in use. At that time they were all clean. They could easily have been cleaned after the raid, provided that the negro sargeant having the keys of the gun racks was privy to the raid. None of this dirqpt evidence was in any way impeached. No motive was shown which would explain thirty or forty Brownsville residents perjuring themselves to put the blame of the raid upon the negroes. Several of these witnesses who swore that the raiders were negro soldiers were per sons of the highest standing in the community. All of this direct evi dence and the clearly established mo tive were met by the denial of the negroes that they had any knowledge of the raid. The substance of the whole case is this: The natural—in WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. fact, the only conceivable —explana- tion of the raid is that it was per petrated by the negroes. This pre sumption is made a certainty by the volume of direct, unprejudiced testi mony that the raiders were negroes from the fort. The Senate investigation merely sought the facts, and natura’ly did not go into the question of the pen alty. On the necessity of the dis missal \we have already expressed our opinion, and no subsequent de velopment has caused us to view dif ferently the need of preventing the development in the army of a “sys tem” which puts privates “on hon or” to conceal their comrades mis deeds from their superiors.—New York Tribune. THE COAL TRUST WILL BE SMASHED. The government of the United States has decided to prosecute the criminal Coal Trust. That is the greatest news of the week —the most important to every American citizen. It is important for three reasons: First —It,promises to end a great, cruel, greedy and lawless combina tion that has made living more costly to millions of people. Second —It demonstrates that there is a sure way to attack and break up other greedy and lawless combina tions that otherwise make life more costly. Third —It proves that against these combinations nothing is really needed but patient, persistent fighting, based upon the plain letter of the law. This newspaper congratulates the people on this memorable victory over the criminal trusts. It congratulates itself that it has been able to be of service to the public that has sup ported it and to which it owes its success. All the evidence upon whrh the Government bases its action against them, that the issue now is not of meas ures, but of men; not of principles, but of per sons ; not of conflicting policies of government, but of conflicting administrators. Republican and Democrat thus become inter changeable terms, except in matters of lead ership, unless there is a conclusive and accept able answer to The World’s question. If this be the case, then there can be only one issue in the next Presidential campaign— shall the John Does or the Richard Roes have the offices? —New York World. the criminal Coal Trust was ob tained and supported by W. R. Hearst. The record of the almost five years’ fight that has ended in this decision ortght to be interesting and instruct ive. It is instructive to us because it shows that in a fight for right there is nothing to be discouraged at. The contest may be long, and it may be often delayed or temporarily defeat ed. But it will win in . the end. The struggle began in October, 1902, when the miners’ strike was in progress in the anthracite region. That, you may remember, was a strike for higher wages which was afterward found by the National Strike Commission to be justified. While the strike was on, the price of coal advanced greatly until it reached <s2l a ton, and, as a result, -schools were closed, factories shut down and general distress was imminent. Mr. Hearst, realizing that the pow er of the railroads which were really responsible for the high prices of coal, as well as for the trouble in the anthracite region, lay in their com b:nation, determined to expose and destroy the Trust agreement by which the railroads operated together and were control the situation. He employed attorneys, sent agents and investigators the country and speedily gathered conclusive doc umentary evidence that the Reading, Jersey Central, Erie, Lehigh and Sus quehanna railroads had formed a trust, were pooling freight rates, throttling competition by diserminat ing contracts, and blacklisting inde pendent dealers. On October 4, 1902, he opened the battle by filing a sworn petition with Attorney-General Knox, of the Fed eral Government, and by writing to the President, offering to produce the evidence to substantiate his charges. Attorney General Knox replied the hext day, suggesting that the evi dence he laid before United States